Deadly Carr Fire Explosively Grows in Northern California

The Carr Fire, first igniting west of Redding, California on Monday, July 23, has since explosively grown to an over-95,000 wildfire. That’s about the size of Portland, Oregon. The hot, dry, and windy weather has made for a perfect recipe for this blaze to continue to grow, and firefighters have had a difficult time keeping up with the fire. Containment is currently at only 17 percent, as of Sunday evening, which is actually up from 5 percent during this past weekend.

874 structures have already been destroyed in Shasta County, including those of firefighters who have been working to stop this fire. Mandatory evacuation orders remain in place across parts of Redding, a city home to over 90 thousand people as over 5,000 homes and buildings remain threatened.

Unfortunately, two firefighters have died as a result of this fire, including Fire Inspector Jeremy Stoke of the Redding Fire Department, who has been with the department since 2004, and a private hire dozer operator on the fire.

Three people from the same family also passed away after being caught in the flames. Two children and their great-grandmother were killed. The great-grandmother’s husband, Ed Bledsoe, said that he thought his family was picked up and brought to safety by the sheriff’s department but it wasn’t until later in the day Saturday when their bodies were discovered at the burned-down house: “We didn’t know the fire was coming down there,” Bledsoe told CNN’s Dan Simon. He also added that their home was not under an evacuation order, showing just how unpredictable this fire is.

Some of these wildfires can produce pryocumulus clouds, including the Carr Fire, as seen in the below photo. These clouds can sometimes produce rain and even lightning, which can make battling the fire even more difficult.

Jackson is Head of Content at WeatherOptics and produces several forecasts and manages all social media platforms. Previously, Jackson forecasted local weather for southwestern Connecticut, founding his website, Jackson's Weather, in the March of 2015. He is currently studying Meteorology and Broadcast Journalism at the University of Miami.